Nunc Dimittis
Enquire about the scoreAbout
Thomas Alban's Nunc Dimittis is a contemplative setting of the Latin canticle, written for unaccompanied double choir. It won the 2025 Clare College Carol Composition Competition and was premiered at Clare Choir's Advent Carol Service that year.
Small chromatic motifs are repeated across the voices as the texture gradually builds, eventually revealing a plainsong-like passage for two solo voices. This passage, mirrored both vertically and horizontally, uses notes from the hexatonic scale. The music then builds towards the word Lumen, which flourishes on Scriabin's Mystic chord, before reaching a climax in E major on Et gloriam plebis tuae Israel.
The Nunc Dimittis was recorded by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, under the direction of Graham Ross, for Reaching Farther (Signum Records, 2026), an album produced by John Rutter to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Clare College.
Text and translation
Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace.
Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum.
Quod parasti ante faciem omnium populorum.
Lumen ad revelationem gentium, et gloriam plebis tuae Israel.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum.
Amen.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen: thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
Listen
Score previews
Select a preview to enlarge it and zoom in.
